The cities at the site were suddenly and completely wiped out in the
Late Bronze Age, which makes a reasonably good fit with the biblical
accounts of Abraham and Lot. The entire presentation was very
convincing, but never once did they deal with the "elephant in the
room": what caused the sites to be suddenly abandoned? As soon as the
session was over, I was the first to raise my hand. "Did you find any
arrow heads? Signs of invasion? What happened to them?" The lead
archeologist paused for a moment. "I didn't want to go there," he
said. Another pause. "I'm preparing material for publication." Pause.
"All I want to say 'on camera' is, they appear to have been wiped out
in a 'heat event'."

The expert wasn't willing to speak of his findings on the record.

I wish I could divulge what he said to a small group of us clustered
around the podium after the session was over, but it would break
confidence. We'll have to wait for the official peer-reviewed
publications.